Back at UCSB with the Wall of Sound - 5/25/74. Grateful Dead/Maria Muldaur Band/Great American String Band. Harder Stadium, UC Santa Barbara.

 One year and two days after their triumphant outdoor show at the University of California Stadium, the Grateful Dead returned to that venue, this time lugging the full version of the Wall of Sound. Once again I made the trip with the same group of UCSB friends, staying as before with friends in nearby Isla Vista. Unlike the relatively cool, breezy afternoon that held sway in 1973, the 1974 show was performed under blistering heat, generating one of the worst sunburns I ever experienced.  However, the day started under light fog. The show had been advertised as featuring the Dead, Maria Muldaur, and the New Riders of the Purple Sage, but the Riders were in the middle of recording an album, so they were replaced as openers by an impromptu version of the Great American String Band – or was it the Great American Music Band? This ensemble, which never made a record, included David Grisman on mandolin, Richard Greene on fiddle, David Nichtern on guitar, and Jerry Garcia on both banjo and guitar. The most surprising member was the legendary jazz bassist Buell Neidlinger, who performed for years with pianist Cecil Taylor, and was then in the Warner Brothers studio orchestra as well as on the faculty at the California Institute for the Arts. He replaced Taj Mahal, who had been the group’s previous bassist, and remained in the group until their last gig on June 13. The group’s short set featured no real bluegrass, but was closer to hot jazz and what emerged shortly thereafter as Grisman’s Dawg Music, along with a few quirky originals by Nichtern like “My Plastic Banana is Not Stupid.”  

Next up was Maria Muldaur, who was then riding high on the success of her debut Warner Brothers album and its hit single, the Nichtern-penned “Midnight at the Oasis.” Her band featured her current flame, and Garcia sidekick John Kahn on bass, along with Nichtern, guitar whiz Amos Garrett, and possibly keyboardist Jeff Gutcheon and drummer Billy Mundi. With this crack band, Muldaur was in fine form and delivered a solid set of funky blues and jazz.

 

The Dead’s performance was only the second outdoor trial for the Wall of Sound, following its initial open-air test at the University of Reno’s very windy stadium on May 12, followed by a brief run of indoor arena shows in the Montana and the Pacific Northwest. The sound was fine, although not notably cleaner to my ears than that produced the embryonic version of the Wall they used the previous year.  They opened with a rousing version of the relatively fresh “US Blues,” with Keith Godchaux giving his all with some rollicking barrelhouse piano. Next up was Mexicali Blues, which found Garcia ripping snarling guitar leads throughout Weir’s cowboy opus. A rare early-set version of “Deal” followed, with Godchaux again driving the train with his dexterous pianistics, especially as he dueled with Garcia during his mid-song solo. Next up was a soaring version of “Jack Straw,” adorned with another fiery Garcia solo. The show’s second “new” song was a frantically up-tempo reading of “Scarlet Begonias,” with the high energy continuing with “Beat It On Down the Line.”  Typical first set fare continued with a soulful “Brown Eyed Women,” “Me and My Uncle” a fairly concise “Sugaree,” and “El Paso.” The lengthy first set’s highlight was the energetic “China Cat Sunflower”> “I Know You Rider” medley, which found all of the instrumentalists all firing on all cylinders during the instrumental bridge, with Garcia leading the charge into “Rider.” Although the set could have ended on a high note with “China>Rider,” the Dead squeezed out one more tune, a rote “Around and Around,” before retreating from the blistering sun for their break. 

 

It's hard to know how much my own sun exposure and expectations from the previous year’s splendid outing affected my impressions, but overall this show seemed a rushed and truncated version of a 1974-era Dead performance. The second set opened with a quartet of short songs – “Promised Land,” “Ship of Fools,” “Big River,” and “Tennessee Jed” that lacked much of the exuberant energy of the opening set. Things got a bit more lively with the first second set medley that opened with “Truckin’ and continuing into the unusual pairing of “Let it Grow” and “Wharf Rat.”  A long, heat-infused infused space segment led abruptly into a compact “Let it Grow,” which found Keith Godchaux in a more jazzy mode after switching over to electric piano. Another abrupt transition led into a drowsy “Wharf Rat.” Rather than continuing with a typical second set extended medley, the band took a water/equipment adjustment break during which they played “Roll Out the Barrel.” The second set wrapped up with a quick, smartly executed medley of “Sugar Magnolia,” “Goin’ Down the Road Feeling Bad” and “One More Saturday Night.”   The band called it an afternoon with a single “Casey Jones” encore after Weir thanked “the light show for making such a wonderful sunny afternoon possible.”

 

Although the Dead’s show overall paled in comparison to adjacent 1974 sets such as Missoula 5/14 and Vancouver 5/17, it stands in retrospect as a fine sample of the Dead’s ensemble playing during that era, particularly during the first set. The show was also notable for one of the few performances of the short-lived Great American String/Music Band and the memorable Maria Muldaur set. Following this show, the Dead only returned to the Harden Stadium for one additional show on June 4, 1978. Fortunately I had a few weeks for my sun damage to heal before the next local show, at the Oakland Coliseum Stadium on June 8.